Hours before the attacks started, defence secretary Pete Hegseth posted operational details about the plan in the messaging group, “including information about targets, weapons the US would be deploying, and attack sequencing”, Goldberg said. His report omitted the details but Goldberg termed it a “shockingly reckless” use of a Signal chat.
Accounts that appeared to represent vice president JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio, CIA director John Ratcliffe, director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, treasury secretary Scott Bessent, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and senior national security council officials were assembled in the chat group, Goldberg wrote.
Joe Kent, Trump's nominee for national counterterrorism centre director, was apparently on the Signal chain despite not yet being Senate-confirmed.
Trump told reporters at the White House he was unaware of the incident.
“I don't know anything about it. I'm not a big fan of _The Atlantic_,” hep said.
A White House official said later an investigation was under way and Trump had been briefed on it.
The national security council's Hughes said in a statement: “At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.
“The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates there were no threats to our service members or our national security.”